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alj
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alj


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PostSubject: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyWed Apr 13, 2011 5:03 am

A friend posted this one on another forum this morning. I've posted pieces of Lakoff's work here. The other linguists mentioned have similar views.

Any comments?

Quote :
Poetry for Everyday Life

By DAVID BROOKS

Here’s a clunky but unremarkable sentence that appeared in the British press before the last national election: “Britain’s recovery from the worst recession in decades is gaining traction, but confused economic data and the high risk of hung Parliament could yet snuff out its momentum.”

The sentence is only worth quoting because in 28 words it contains four metaphors. Economies don’t really gain traction, like a tractor. Momentum doesn’t literally get snuffed out, like a cigarette. We just use those metaphors, without even thinking about it, as a way to capture what is going on.

In his fine new book, “I Is an Other,” James Geary reports on linguistic research suggesting that people use a metaphor every 10 to 25 words. Metaphors are not rhetorical frills at the edge of how we think, Geary writes. They are at the very heart of it.

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, two of the leading researchers in this field, have pointed out that we often use food metaphors to describe the world of ideas. We devour a book, try to digest raw facts and attempt to regurgitate other people’s ideas, even though they might be half-baked.

When talking about relationships, we often use health metaphors. A friend might be involved in a sick relationship. Another might have a healthy marriage.

When talking about argument, we use war metaphors. When talking about time, we often use money metaphors. But when talking about money, we rely on liquid metaphors. We dip into savings, sponge off friends or skim funds off the top. Even the job title stockbroker derives from the French word brocheur, the tavern worker who tapped the kegs of beer to get the liquidity flowing.

The psychologist Michael Morris points out that when the stock market is going up, we tend to use agent metaphors, implying the market is a living thing with clear intentions. We say the market climbs or soars or fights its way upward. When the market goes down, on the other hand, we use object metaphors, implying it is inanimate. The market falls, plummets or slides.

Most of us, when asked to stop and think about it, are by now aware of the pervasiveness of metaphorical thinking. But in the normal rush of events. we often see straight through metaphors, unaware of how they refract perceptions. So it’s probably important to pause once a month or so to pierce the illusion that we see the world directly. It’s good to pause to appreciate how flexible and tenuous our grip on reality actually is.

Metaphors help compensate for our natural weaknesses. Most of us are not very good at thinking about abstractions or spiritual states, so we rely on concrete or spatial metaphors to (imperfectly) do the job. A lifetime is pictured as a journey across a landscape. A person who is sad is down in the dumps, while a happy fellow is riding high.

Most of us are not good at understanding new things, so we grasp them imperfectly by relating them metaphorically to things that already exist. That’s a “desktop” on your computer screen.

Metaphors are things we pass down from generation to generation, which transmit a culture’s distinct way of seeing and being in the world. In his superb book “Judaism: A Way of Being,” David Gelernter notes that Jewish thought uses the image of a veil to describe how Jews perceive God — as a presence to be sensed but not seen, which is intimate and yet apart.

Judaism also emphasizes the metaphor of separateness as a path to sanctification. The Israelites had to separate themselves from Egypt. The Sabbath is separate from the week. Kosher food is separate from the nonkosher. The metaphor describes a life in which one moves from nature and conventional society to the sacred realm.

To be aware of the central role metaphors play is to be aware of how imprecise our most important thinking is. It’s to be aware of the constant need to question metaphors with data — to separate the living from the dead ones, and the authentic metaphors that seek to illuminate the world from the tinny advertising and political metaphors that seek to manipulate it.

Most important, being aware of metaphors reminds you of the central role that poetic skills play in our thought. If much of our thinking is shaped and driven by metaphor, then the skilled thinker will be able to recognize patterns, blend patterns, apprehend the relationships and pursue unexpected likenesses.

Even the hardest of the sciences depend on a foundation of metaphors. To be aware of metaphors is to be humbled by the complexity of the world, to realize that deep in the undercurrents of thought there are thousands of lenses popping up between us and the world, and that we’re surrounded at all times by what Steven Pinker of Harvard once called “pedestrian poetry.” 
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Abe F. March
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyWed Apr 13, 2011 10:27 pm

Excellent Ann. Good information.

I think that the media is responsible for much of that. Coming up with a new metaphor to make a point gets picked up and suddenly becomes a buzz word or phrase, much like "any time soon".
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Shelagh
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyThu Apr 14, 2011 1:23 am

I never use metaphors; my train of thought drives itself, and in my mind, the road is always clear without the need to push it in any single direction.

... and I never lose my thread.
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Al Stevens
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyThu Apr 14, 2011 4:38 am

And then there are analogies...

Without metaphors, much communication would be difficult if not impossible. Scan Mr. Brooks's essay itself for examples. When no word or phrase exists that applies, we must either create one or use a metaphor. If the former, then we have to define it. And we'd do that with metaphors.

We saw a lot of that in the space program and the advance of technology in the 20th century.
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alj
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyThu Apr 14, 2011 7:50 am

Yes, Abe, the media is involved, as are the special interest groups that want us to respond without thinking.

Al, that's very true. I don't think, though, that Mr. Brooks is telling us not to use them, but to be aware of the connotations that go with them.

Shelagh, your comments are right on the ball. You hit the nail on the head.

Ann
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Al Stevens
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyThu Apr 14, 2011 11:15 am

An aside, folks. We're writers. "Media" is a plural noun. Just one of my peeves.
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alj
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyThu Apr 14, 2011 11:26 am

It is a group noun, in this sense, Al, Group nouns require singular verbs.

Ann
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Shelagh
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyThu Apr 14, 2011 11:41 am

alj wrote:

Shelagh, your comments are right on the ball. You hit the nail on the head.

Ann
Thanks Ann! I thought maybe I'd lost the plot.
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Al Stevens
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyThu Apr 14, 2011 1:56 pm

alj wrote:
It is a group noun, in this sense, Al, Group nouns require singular verbs.

Ann

Nope. Not a group (collective) noun. "Information" is a collective noun. "Media" is a plural noun. The singular is "medium."

Find every place where you use "media" as a singular, such as "media is," change it to, for example, "media are," and the usage is quite comfortable. And correct.

Eventually, wide-scale misuse of "media" (especially by the media) and "criteria" as singulars will bring about formal redefinition as has happened to "data," but not yet as of the last time I checked.

Those singular usages fall into a substandard category along with "irregardless" and that ilk, but formal writing does not recognize them. Once again, the last time I looked it up. There's a guy in charge of Brittanica now who lets anything in common usage get into the dictionary. So it could have changed. Awful thing to think about. But we language lawyers are still kicking and screaming.

Here is a discussions about it:

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/05/27/media-is-singular/

This one is a blog with the premise as its title, and the author misuses the word in the title of his most recent entry.

http://www.roryoconnor.org/blog/
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alj
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyThu Apr 14, 2011 4:18 pm

The certified English teacher respectfully disagrees, Al. Yes, "media" is plural for "medium," but it refers to a group in this context. You cannot use the word, "medium" because we are referring to more than one. Print, TV, film, and internet, to name several - each is a medium of communication, all of them are media. But it is being used as a single entity here, and that usage is what determines which verb form to use. A single entity requires a singular verb.

The technical terms are "group" and/or "collective." That's what the articles you referenced are missing. They are oversimplifying the situation, trying to apply a rule that doesn't fit the circumstance. Words are not static. If they become so, they die. The modern use of the phrase, "the media" as a collective does not break the rule, since the intent is to reference a singularity. The form of the verb is determined by the author's intent.

There is a story told by Dr. Wayne Dyer. The Iowa testing association asked for permission to use a quotation from one of his books in an upcoming version of their standardized test. He agreed on the condition that he be sent a copy of the test as soon as it was released. They did so, and along with it, a key for grading it. He found his selection, answered the four questions, then checked the key. According to the key, he only got three out of the four answers right, because he "missed the intent of the author."

My intent was to indicate that singularity of perspective which consolidates the various forms. It was my sentence, after all. The rules must allow for flexibility and growth if the language is to remain alive.

Sorry, you probably didn't know you were pushing one of my metaphorical buttons.

Ann
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Pam
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyThu Apr 14, 2011 6:57 pm

Just to stir the pot a little more, my copy of the Oxford dictionary has a note about media which I think you'll appreciate Ann. "Although considerable opposition has been expressed to the use of media as a mass noun with a singular verb, e.g. the media is on our side, this usage is fairly well established." I certainly use it in the same way that you do.

Truth be told, metaphors and analogies make me batty some days. A significant amount of the work I presently do gets sold around the world. Lots of our readers have learned English as a second or third language, and they have a hard time with metaphors and analogies. That means I have a hard time with them too. Writing in plain English is hard work.
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Al Stevens
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyFri Apr 15, 2011 8:10 am

alj wrote:
The certified English teacher respectfully disagrees, Al.
This is one of my lukewarm buttons, too, and I researched it some time ago when the usage kept popping up in articles and books I was editing. Just now I'm looking at The American Heritage Dictionary, 2nd College Edition, and it agrees with me. Of course, that was in 1982. No telling what has happened since then as new generations do malice to our language. "Text" wasn't a verb back then, either.

We can agree to disagree.
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyFri Apr 15, 2011 8:14 am

Pam wrote:
"Although considerable opposition has been expressed to the use of media as a mass noun with a singular verb, e.g. the media is on our side, this usage is fairly well established." I
Oh, there's no question about the usage. It's common. It just has not been formally specified as far as I know. Use it that way and you put yourself up as subject to all that "considerable opposition." And your writing will be critiqued accordingly.
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alj
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyFri Apr 15, 2011 9:26 am

Quote :
We can agree to disagree.

Yes, let's.

Back to the OP,

My comment on the article by Brooks that I posted above would be that we cannot write without using metaphors. That's one of Lakoff's points as well: The use of metaphor is inherent in the way we think.

In fact, the ability to use and understand metaphors requires a higher level of thinking - a "meta level" as opposed to an "object level." Charles Hampden-Turner, in Maps of the Mind, takes that idea from Gregory Bateson and uses the story of the Sphinx, as it appears in the Oedipus legend to explain that solving the riddle requires the ability to discern between the two levels of language:

What creature is it that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon-time, and three legs in the evening?

If you can't recognize the metaphors as a different level of language than simple, objective speech, you won't get the riddle and you will get eaten.

The point is to pay attention, notice when the language level changes, and be aware of the message so that you can respond to it logically.

Ann
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Pam
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyFri Apr 15, 2011 2:38 pm

The thing that I finally came to terms with several years ago was the fluidity of language. I cannot read Middle English to save my life, although I can get through Shakespeare if there are enough crib notes handy. Usage evolves and words are added or deleted from the dictionary as we change. I don't think it's a bad thing, although I did find it odd when w00t made it into the dictionary.

One of the most remarkable things to me is the difference between British and American English spellings - I try to use British spelling (which is also Canadian) when I visit here, and then some of the things I do for work are written for an American audience, so spellings have to be adjusted.

Some days I feel as though I have to re-learn to spell every morning, and I know that it makes my editor wild. Sure does keep life interesting!
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Pam
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PostSubject: Re: More on metaphor   More on metaphor EmptyFri Apr 15, 2011 2:39 pm

The thing that I finally came to terms with several years ago was the fluidity of language. I cannot read Middle English to save my life, although I can get through Shakespeare if there are enough crib notes handy. Usage evolves and words are added or deleted from the dictionary as we change. I don't think it's a bad thing, although I did find it odd when w00t made it into the dictionary.

One of the most remarkable things to me is the difference between British and American English spellings - I try to use British spelling (which is also Canadian) when I visit here, and then some of the things I do for work are written for an American audience, so spellings have to be adjusted.

Some days I feel as though I have to re-learn to spell every morning, and I know that it makes my editor wild. Sure does keep life interesting!
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